In the last a few many years, you will find been a steady decrease in the variety of U.S. pilots. In accordance Aviation consultants towards the Aircraft Proprietors and Pilots Affiliation (AOPA), there were 827,000 active, certificated pilots in 1980. By 2011, that range had dropped to only 617,000. In the course of that same 30-year period of time, manufacturing of single-engine planes dropped from fourteen,000 per calendar year to less than seven-hundred.

But to the past 3 decades, AOPA has built comprehending this declining pattern and reversing it a major precedence. AOPA steps include things like producing a network of flying golf equipment, and speaking out in Washington that can help retain the climbing cost and complexity of aviation below manage.

Thankfully, 2013 numbers are indicating a constructive upswing, determined by facts from the Basic Aviation Suppliers Association's (GAMA) 2013 Typical Aviation Statistical Databook & 2014 Marketplace Outlook.

Here's a look at what's been causing the pilot and creation decrease, and good news from GAMA's 2013/2014 aviation business report.

What's been causing the decrease?

In accordance to a Washington Post article posted February 9 titled, “Small aviation businesses say pilot shortage could drive market into the ground,” there are a variety of factors that have contributed to the decline in pilots and manufacturing in the last decades, including soaring fuel prices and heightened traveling restrictions following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

One reason is that the recent economic downturn has left much less people with discretionary income. Others place much of the blame on federal regulators, whom they accuse of making it too difficult for pilots to obtain and renew their licenses, which in turn hurts small aviation businesses and the aviation market as a whole.

Many commercial pilots come in the GA pilot pool, and the global airline field will need almost a half million new commercial airline pilots over the next 20 years, according towards the Boeing Pilot and Technical Market Outlook for 2013-2032.